Puppets, Ladybugs and Flowers

We're wrapping our week up early.  Tomorrow is Lindsey's 4th birthday, and birthday's are no school days at our house.  

In our Delaware study this week, we moved on to the state bug, the Ladybug!  The girls have thoroughly enjoyed this study, and I didn't mind it so much myself.  These bugs aren't as creepy as most of the ones that Olivia brings home!

Books we read:

A Ladybug's Life by John Himmelman
Face-to-Face with The Ladybug by Valerie Tracqui (lots of GREAT photos of the life stages)
Ladybugology by Michael Elsohn Ross  (great activities included)
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Using this list of books, we made a ladybug life cycle drawing, and labeled a ladybug's body parts.  We searched (unsuccessfully) for ladybugs in the flower gardens.   We discovered that there are over 400 varieties of ladybugs!

Our local library has a lot of book/puppet packages that you can check out.  So this week we took advantage of this resource and added some puppetry to our day.  "The Grouchy Ladybug" came with a ladybug puppet, so it was used a LOT during the week.

We also checked out a package with a book called "If At First You Do Not See" by Ruth Brown.   It's a fun book with a caterpillar who works his way around various items that are not as they first appear.  The girls had a great time with this book as they tried to guess what each picture would turn out to be.  It came with a huge caterpillar puppet that Olivia is in love with!

Our last puppet/book combo was "I Wish I Were a Butterfly" by James Howe.  I loved the storyline, as it showed the poor "ugly" cricket that he was just a pretty as a butterfly...in the sight of those who loved him.  I think the girls got the point too!

Latin is going well.  This week we worked on the simple phrase "Quid est tuum praenomen?" (what is your name?)  and "Meum praenomen est_____". (my name is____).  This went well except my almost 4 year old's pronunciation leaves a BIT to be desired.  Somehow when she says it, it comes out sounding like "Squid eat the brain of mom."  Which quite honestly is how I feel some days, but still!  

My favorite part of the school week was our outdoor art class as the girls worked on details, colors and shapes.   You can read my post from earlier in the week here.   However, I still thought I'd share a photo from the class...

If by chance you've been following the ongoing saga of Olivia's bug collection; be sure to read the post from earlier in the week about our Tragedy in the Bug--o-sphere!

I hope everyone's week has been productive as we wrap up and head into a holiday weekend!  Don't forget to visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Weekly Wrap Up.